Booker: 'False debate' on guns

12/23/12 11:45 AM EST

Newark Mayor Cory Booker on Sunday gave a passionate critique of the "false debate" surrounding gun control and called for increased background checks.

"I don't know if anybody here has seen somebody shot. I have," Booker said on ABC's “This Week." "I don't know if anybody here had to put their hand in somebody's chest and try to stop the bleeding so somebody doesn't die. And what frustrates me about this debate is that it's a false debate. It's a false debate. This is a convenient trick to try to divide our country more. Most of us in America, including gun owners, agree on things that would stop the kind of carnage that is going on in cities all over America."

Booker said there is common-ground legislation from the "pragmatic center" that should be passed immediately, though he didn't highlight specifics beyond citing increased background checks.

"Let's stick to the pragmatic center where all Americans believe the same thing and let's pass legislation that works," he said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misspelled the mayor's first name.